Love had no place instead, as Newton puts it, "I came into being through a kind of homegrown eugenics project." Her mother, Sandy, came from dirt-poor "Texas rabble-rousers, scoundrels and misfits" for whom "popular family activities" were "dipping snuff and quarrelling." Richard married Sandy believing that the two of them would add to his line's excellence by producing smart children Sandy, who had recently attempted suicide, was already in her 30s and divorced - not ideal selling points in the marriage market - saw the arrangement as a means to a comfortable, settled life. Her father, Richard, proud of his slaveholder forbears from the Delta, was a mendacious, sadistic disciplinarian who prized his family tree above all things. Writer and critic Maud Newton's family has provided her with a profusion of material for her first book, "Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation," a passionate memoir and investigation of inheritance and bloodlines. "Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation," by Maud Newton Random House (378 pages, $28.99)
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